


A Word of Encouragement

by muchmoremajestic



Series: Happy Steve Bingo 2019 [5]
Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: M/M, Notes, Secret Identity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-01
Updated: 2019-12-01
Packaged: 2021-02-26 01:48:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 928
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21625594
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/muchmoremajestic/pseuds/muchmoremajestic
Summary: When someone leaves notes to cheer Steve up, he can't figure out who the source is.
Relationships: Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Series: Happy Steve Bingo 2019 [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1540204
Comments: 6
Kudos: 105





	A Word of Encouragement

**Author's Note:**

> For Happy Steve Bingo, N5 - Secret Identity

It had been a rough few weeks, but the notes made Steve’s day better. 

The first, was on a small index card, after a mission almost failed and he and Sam barely landed an aircraft safely. Handwritten, but not signed.

_ All that matters is that you’re both okay. _

Steve found the note taped to his bedroom door after the debriefing and a visit to the medical wing.  _ Whoever wrote this, they’re right _ , Steve reminded himself.

A couple of days later, the team was practicing a battle maneuver - or at least trying to. For whatever reason, the pieces weren’t connecting, and the team just wasn’t getting the plan right. Steve was getting frustrated - it was his plan his team couldn’t follow, after all - and they ended practice early to give Steve time to study the footage and make adjustments. 

After spending a few hours buried in his notes and plans, Steve returned to his room, to find another small note taped to his door. 

_ You’re doing your best Steve, and that’s all anyone can ask of you. _

A few more notes followed -  _ You did great today!, You’re a good leader _ ,  _ You make this team better _ . After a few hard weeks, Steve needed the little boost of confidence and faith that his teammate had in him. He just wished he knew  _ which _ teammate it was.

The problem with modern reports is that they were all typed. So while Steve knew his teammates very well, one thing he  _ wasn’t _ familiar with was their handwriting. So he wasn’t sure who was sending these nice notes, or who to thank or why they were doing it. 

He couldn’t really just ask who was doing it.  _ Are you the one being nice to me? Are you the one sending me notes? _ Frankly, he didn’t want the notes to stop, so he didn’t want to scare away the person sending them.

But he still wanted to know who his supporter was. The notes had put a smile on Steve’s face, and had made several bad days much better. 

He supposed it could be Natasha - being openly positive was not what she was known for, but Steve could see her taking a more secret approach to support a stressed-out friend. 

Tony? From what Steve could tell, small notes of encouragement just didn’t seem like Tony’s style. A sarcastic comment that would make you find the humor in a bad situation? Maybe. A joke about how the person that upset you is an asshole? That seemed like Tony. But notes? Steve wasn’t sure. 

Thor had been handling a matter on Asgard and was off-Earth. 

He knew it wasn’t Sam, if only based on the first note that highlighted how fortunate it was that both he and Sam were okay.

It could have been Bruce - spending time learning to control the Hulk had made Bruce kind of an optimist by default. Bruce was always very supportive of his teammates, so Steve could easily imagine Bruce doing something kind like this. 

He doubted it was Rhodey, because Rhodey was a very direct man. Rhodey would pat you on the back and say something supportive or comforting to your face; he wouldn’t waste time with small notes.

So he left it alone, preferring to get the notes over finding their writer. And that lasted for another two weeks, until another mission went wrong. 

They had received some bad intel, which led to Nat getting ambushed and a building exploding and almost pinning Tony and Rhodey under rubble. They had escaped, and Nat was a little injured, but would be okay after a couple days’ rest, but Steve was still furious, almost kicking in the door to the intelligence wing to scream at the agents who provided them the bad information. 

After chewing out the agents, Steve stomped back toward his room for a moment’s peace. But as he turned down the hallway, he stopped as he saw someone in front of his door, a note in their mouth and currently trying to untangle themselves from a twisted piece of tape. 

It was Tony. 

Steve had been walking too loudly, too angry still, so even after he had paused Tony had already heard him approaching and turned around. On spotting Steve, a small blush went across his cheeks.

Steve smiled and approached Tony. “Hey.”

“Hey. You, uh, caught me I guess,” Tony said with a small laugh.

“I had no idea it was was you, Tony. Thank you so much - those notes made me feel better.”

“Good, I’m glad. I saw how rough things had been, and you’re team leader and I know you think that means that any failure or bad thing that happens is at least partially your fault, but it isn’t. And I just wanted to remind you of that.”

Steve felt a small ache inside him, like Tony had been reading his mind. “Thank you, Tony. Gestures like these, they mean the world to me. I appreciate it.”

“Anytime. I meant what I said, in all of them,” Tony paused, looking at the note in his hands. “Well, I need to go untangle myself from this tape, but I guess this is for you.” 

Tony handed Steve the note and left, Steve thanking him once again as he turned the corner. 

Once Steve was alone, he opened Tony’s last note.

_ You’re doing an amazing job. Even when a mission goes bad, or one of us gets hurt, I know you’ll do everything you can to keep us all safe. Be kind to yourself, Steve. You deserve it.  _

**Author's Note:**

> I'm muchmoremajestic on tumblr and vrose23 on discord!


End file.
